Polyunsaturated organic derivatives of definite geometrical stereochemistry are being encountered with increasing frequency in animal and plant sources. In addition to polyenes such as vitamin A, lycopene and squalene, acetylenic alcohols, ketones, acids and hydrocarbons have been isolated recently from higher fungi (Basidiomycetes) and higher plants (Compositae and Umbelliferae). The antibiotic, mycomycin, is a remarkable C13 open-chain acid in whose structure acetylenic, allenic (source of optical activity) and cis- and trans-vinylic conjugation coexist. Since higher polyenes and polyines formally can be considered to arise from the reductive oligomerization of lower alkynes, this research plans to continue the investigation of a novel and versatile method for the controlled, stereoselective reduction and coupling of substituted alkynes. The insight gleaned in this study could have a tremendous impact on synthetic organic Chemistry, in general, and on the elaboration of naturally occurring acetylenic and olefinic systems in particular.